Egging around

Posted: Wednesday, April 12, 2006

A classic sauce made with real eggs is like tasting a spoon full of creamy silk. But thanks to the convenience of packaged sauces and mixes that just require a twist of a spoon and a little water, classic sauces are becoming obsolete in the home kitchen. Even restaurants that serve homemade hollandaise are hard to find. My first class in culinary school was Stocks and Sauces and it only took a few hours to fall in love with the simplicity and technique of a fine sauce.

Professional cooks learn the basic sauces, called the mother sauces. There are different opinions as to what the mother sauces are, but I learned them as béchamel, espanol, tomato, hollandaise, veloute and demiglace. I always leaned more toward the eggs and butter, so my favorite sauces are the rich and sinful ones.

Many sauces require eggs to be added while the base of the sauce is warm. The key to making a successful sauce with eggs is tempering the eggs. Tempering simply means to slowly add small amount of warm mixture to beaten eggs while whisking vigorously to keep the eggs from cooking. Once the eggs are warm, add the warmed egg mixture slowly to the hot sauce mixture, again while whisking vigorously. This way, a smooth, creamy consistency can be achieved without having scrambled eggs in the sauce. When the eggs cook in the sauce and the sauce separates, chefs call the sauce "broken." There is usually no repair for a broken sauce.

I have a soft spot for dessert sauces and Sabayon is one of my favorites. Sabayon is the French term for zabaglione, the original Italian version of the same sauce. The sauce is traditionally made with Marsala wine, but I use port for its flavor. This sauce is unusual in that it can be served alone as the main dessert. Pouring it over fruit or cake is also divine. It's best made right before serving to maintain the frothiness. Choose the amount of sugar based on how sweet you like your desserts.

A béarnaise sauce is a variation of traditional hollandaise Sauce. It's traditionally served over meats, such as steak and chicken. There's nothing like a perfectly cooked filet mignon topped with real béarnaise sauce. Hollandaise, like many other sauces, requires constant whisking and lots of attention. I've found that making it in the blender saves me time and lots of worry. It also means that I enjoy Hollandaise and Béarnaise a lot more often. Now, on Saturday mornings, it's nothing for me to make a quick Hollandaise to go over eggs for breakfast.

Don't be intimidated by sauces, and enjoy the wonderful addition they are to so many foods. With just a little effort, a truly impressive classical sauce can enhance almost any dish it's added to.

Sabayon with Strawberries

4 egg yolks

2/3 cup port wine

3 to 4 tablespoons sugar

2 cups fresh strawberries

Combine egg yolks, port and sugar in a stainless steel bowl. Place bowl over slightly simmering water. Reduce heat to low and whisk constantly, making sure to run whisk along the bottom of the bowl, for 7 to 8 minutes, or until frothy and tripled in volume.